Environmental News

Environmental News from the Great Lakes Region

AMO works with steel manufacturers through R&D projects to leverage innovation resources and implement best practices in steel manufacturing. This industry, which has been around for a century, has long played an important role in the U.S. economy. Today, more than 142,000 people work in steel manufacturing in the U.S. and the industry directly or indirectly supports almost one million U.S. jobs that use steel to make other products for consumers. According to the American Iron and Steel Institute, since 1990, the steel industry has reduced energy intensity by 31 percent. Technologies for efficiency improvements are essential tools to compete in an ever expanding global market. Source: U.S. DOE Advanced Manufacturing Office, 11/21/16

The Freshwater Lab, a University of Illinois at Chicago-based environmental research and policy center, has been awarded two grants to support its work examining social and human issues related to water, energy and natural resources in the Great Lakes region. Source: University of Illinois Chicago, 11/10/16

The weight of electronics recycled in 2014 increased from the year before, according to data from the U.S. EPA. The electronics recycling rate in 2014 was 41.7 percent. That is an increase from 37.8 percent the year before. In all, 1.4 million tons of electronics were recycled in 2014, up from nearly 1.3 million tons. E-scrap generation, however, stayed the same at 1.3 percent of the entire municipal solid waste (MSW) stream. According to the U.S. EPA's report, selected consumer electronics accounted for 3.3 million tons in the waste stream in both 2014 and 2013. Source: Resource Recycling, 11/17/16

An alternative global strategy for the protection and promotion of workers' human rights in ICT supply chains is emerging, writes David Foust Rodríguez, Coordinator of the Center for Labor Reflection and Action. Source: New Internationalist Blog, 11/2/16

Researchers have detected prescription and over-the-counter medications and personal care products in Illinois groundwater, an indication that humans are contaminating water that is vital to aquatic life. This study was funded by the Prairie Research Institute and the National Great Rivers Research and Education Center and is published in the journal Science of the Total Environment.. ISTC researcher Wei Zheng is a co-author on the paper. Source: Illinois Natural History Survey News, 11/17/16

Great Lakes fish consumption advisories could be inadequate and exposing consumers to higher levels of toxic chemicals than anticipated. A new study says that the current approach to creating advisories doesn't take into account what happens when more than one chemical is present in a fish. This means they are "probably deficient in protecting the health of human consumers," the study says. Source: Great Lakes Echo, 11/18/16

The Obama administration aims to cement its greenhouse gas regulations in the time remaining, but some of the largest greenhouse gas decisions will slide to President-elect Donald Trump, according to the updated federal regulatory agenda. Source: Bloomberg BNA, 11/17/16

Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill devised a computational approach by which they can increase accuracy in detecting toxins in chemical products to as much as 85 percent while also saving millions of dollars and years of development time for new drugs and other products, as well as improving safety. Source: R&D Magazine, 11/17/16

Columbia Sportswear wanted an environmentally sustainable version of a clear plastic shipping bag for its new jacket. Avery Dennison had a renewable version of the poly bag, made from sugar cane instead of petroleum-based plastic, on the drawing board. Columbia approached the global packaging and label manufacturer for help and Avery Dennison went from prototype of the sugar-cane bag to finished product in six weeks. Source: Environmental Leader, 11/11/16

Take any city in the UK, and you'll likely find that the skies are cleaner today than they were 40 years ago. Sophisticated scrubbers on power station chimneys, catalytic converters on vehicle exhausts and cleaner fuels have all helped to reduce the haze. But it isn't just cleaning up at home that has made our skies clearer; we've also been outsourcing much of our dirty work to other countries. For the first time, a study shows exactly how much air pollution each country is exporting, and where it is exporting it to. Source: EnvironmentalResearchWeb, 11/15/16

The Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Purdue University have diverted almost six tons of waste from landfills through a recycling program that turns used lab gloves and garments into shelving, flowerpots and lawn and garden furniture. Source: Waste 360, 11/14/16